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Session Overview

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Session Overview

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  1. High-Skill Migration of Trades and Professions: Regulatory Challenges & ConsiderationsCarolyn Moore, RN, MScNExecutive DirectorCollege of Registered Nurses of Nova ScotiaConcurrent SessionLicensure of Internationally-Trained Professionals Part IICLEAR 2003 Annual ConferenceSaturday, September 13, 2003

  2. Session Overview • The emerging context for regulation • The importance of approach • Current policy discourse • Where does this leave regulators?

  3. The Emerging Reality Globalization emerges as a major set of forces. Shaping the context for mandate achievement, relationship management and ultimately, major issues resolution.

  4. The Emerging Reality • Transforming and integrating economies and societies - new norms, new approaches • Emergence of a mobile “global professional” - requires different regulatory responses • Early examples • consulting engineers • information technology • specialized trades • health care

  5. The Emerging Reality • High skill migration (HSM) of trades and professions is quickly becoming entrenched as the new norm in post-industrial society

  6. The Regulator’s Challenge 1Acknowledgement • Recognize historical response has limited utility • Recognize regulators are at “fork in the road” • First challenge is making a conceptual change: From “labour mobility” To “high-skill migration” • Shortage or scarcity1 - link between service needs/demands and supply options 1 (WHO 2002)

  7. BALANCE OR IMBALANCE? BALANCE IMBALANCE - Lead from shortage paradigm - Lead from scarcity paradigm - Reinforces/sustain status quo - Dynamic, transforming sectors - Focus on numbers - Patterns of sufficient skill sets - Mobility - Permanent (once moved) - Migration - Temporary - Credential Focus - Education - Credential Focus - Competence - Substantial equivalence - Substantial equivalence of education of learning & experience - Brain drain/gain - Brain circulation - Single-issue focus (e.g., health) - Linked-issue focus (e.g. trade, immigration)

  8. The Regulator’s Challenge 2INFORMED RESPONSE • Recognize/respond to links between high-skill migration and broader regulatory reform • Understand how regulation is being transformed • Regulatory partnerships (“co-regulation”) e.g. gov’t, other regulators • Linkages and involvement of regulators with evolving trade agreements (e.g., NAFTA, GATS). • Regulatory leadership must “find its way” in a new era where broader public policy interests intersect with public protection mandate

  9. The Regulator’s Challenge 3A CONSCIOUS ENABLER OR BARRIER? • Approach high-skill migration as an “enabler” • Assess evolving trade/immigration/regulatory policy directions • Transform regulatory operations: • Move away from barriers to recognition of HSMs • Move to assist in the “multi-player” process of managing high-skill migration • Apply lessons learned from early progress in facilitating better domestic cross-border migration (e.g., AIT, Washington Accord, Lisbon Convention)

  10. Alignment with Current Policy Discourse • New enablers include: • “Brain circulation” Capitalize on temporary migration to access scarce knowledge and skills • Growth of sophisticated transnational networks • Regional integration/harmonization, mutual recognition agreements • Internationalization of higher education • Acknowledging substantial equivalence/similarity in competencies • Existing barriers include: • Continued protectionism by regulators • Failure to effectively address human rights links

  11. Expect Changes at Four Levels ONE - federal/national/regional governments2 • United Kingdom - Clear shift from “limiting migration” to “managing migration” • United States - Proliferation of temporary visa categories/relaxation of “employer attestation” • Canada - “human capital” approach • EU Directives, 2002 • Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) immigration policy forum Fall 2003 2(Lowell and Martin, 2001)

  12. Expect Changes at Four Levels TWO - Processes used by high-skilled migrants • Growth of enabling transnational and regional networks, e.g. Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Assoc., Global Korean Network, Chinese American Engineers & Scientists Assoc. of S. California, Brain Gain Network (Phillipines)

  13. Expect Changes at Four Levels THREE - Use of international and local legal processes to challenge validity/fairness of current regulatory policies • New South Wales - Committee for the Review of Practices for the Employment of Medical Practitioners in the NWS Health System3 • B.C., Canada - Successful human rights challenge against College of Physicians and Surgeons 3(Iredale, 2001)

  14. Expect Changes at Four Levels FOUR - Role of international trade agreements in managing high-skilled migration4 • Final negotiation and implementation of GATS related to Mode 4 (Movement of Natural Persons) • Sensitivities linking GATS and “essential public services” such as health and education • WTO attention to trades and services and dispute resolution processes 4 (OECD)

  15. The Individual Country Responding Globally to Migration Options and key strategies that are emerging: 1. Credential learning and experience 2. Regulate via a competency-orientation 3. Integrate & harmonize with workforce restructuring 4. Manage migration in a multi-player/multi-sector way 5. Recognize and value the emergence of cultural competence Bloom & Grant, 2001 Duffy, 2001

  16. One Indicator of the Public Mood? January 2003 Reader Poll (web-based, respondent-driven) How can we cut the red tape facing foreign-trained professionals in Canada? Create more internships and residency programs 552 votes (22%) Screen immigrants better before they arrive 334 votes (14%) Restrict immigration until we improve our certification process 254 votes (10%) Red tape is our only means of insuring skilled foreigners meet Cdn standards 345 votes (14%) Adapt standards to take into account foreign training 1014 (40%) Total votes: 2509

  17. Where the “Rubber Hits the Road” • Revisit credential assessment processes for high-skill migration – accommodate temporary and permanent HSMs, reduce recognition “red tape” • Assess PLAR barriers and possible solutions • Develop competence assessment tools, resources • valid, reliable, and defensible • fair, transparent, and reasonable • administratively efficient • Engage multi-sector partners as appropriate

  18. Some Closing Thoughts ... • HSM – a global issue linked to broader regulatory reform • Involves striking a balance between the interest of the main partners, e.g. regulators, gov’t, trade schools, colleges, universities, employers, domestic workforce, high skill migrants, source and host countries

  19. Important Policy Considerations • What is your organization’s current orientation to high skill migration? • Is there a shared challenge/opportunity? • Is a broader vision of migration than “security of supply” being considered…(e.g.,“cultural competence”) • Are emerging regulatory expectations for high-skill migration consistent with regulatory reform? • Is there recognition that we don’t yet have the policies,processes or models to properly manage high-skill migration

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